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Comunicación presentada en el 28th European Archaelogical Association Annual Meeting, organizado por la European Archaelogical Association y celebrado en Budapest (Hungría), 31 agosto – 3 septiembre 2022

Comunicación presentada en el Workshop “Concorrer ao Estímulo Individual FCT” 15.02.2021 | Sessão via Zoom. https://iem.fcsh.unl.pt/section.aspx?kind=noticia&id=2080

Talk delivered in Landscape Archaeology Conference 2020+1 “virtually together” in Madrid, Spain, 8-11 June 2021, Nuninger L., Verhagen P., Bertoncello F., Castrorao Barba A. 2016a, Estimating “land use heritage” to model changes in archaeological settlement patterns, LAC 2014 proceedings, pp. 1-12. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.5463/lac.2014.60 - Nuninger L., Verhagen P., Bertoncello F., Castrorao Barba A. 2016b, Estimating the “memory of landscape” to predict changes in archaeological settlement patterns, in CAA 2015 proceedings, Oxford, pp. 623-636., The aim of this paper is to evaluate the influence of previous settlement occupations and land use exploitation on site location preference between during the post-Roman period (5th - 8th c. CE). In order to approach this topic in a quantitative and spatial perspective will be tested a methodology already developed for modelling the so-called "land use heritage maps" (Nuninger et al 2016a; 2016b). As case studies have been chosen two inland areas of the territory of Siena (Tuscany, Central Italy), both far from main cities. However, the two rural areas are characterized by diversified dynamics as regards Romanization and de-Romanization patterns. The Orcia Valley is an area where the presence of Roman settlement system (farms, villas and villages) was very impacting on the landscape, especially due to the land suitability for agriculture and the close relationship with rivers, streams and road network. During the Early Middle Ages, the Orcia Valley was crossed by the Francigena road and so it continued to have a high degree of connectivity. The second case study area, The Merse Valley, was characterized by a lower process of Romanization, due to its marginality from the main road system and the absence of suitable agricultural resources. The application of GIS-based spatial analysis to calculate "heritage maps" and its relationships with post-Roman settlement locations will provide new insights for evaluating different patterns of continuity, change and resilience in Late Antique and Early Medieval landscapes.

Comunicación presentada en el Ciclo di Seminari tematici organizzati nell’ambito del LIVING LAB e del Laboratorio di Laurea del CdS in Ingegneria edile-Architettura del Dipartimento di Architettura dell’Università di Palermo (Partner del progetto iHERITAGE), 12 marzo 2021 (online)

Financiación: beca "Juan de la Cierva-incorporación, IJCI-2017-31494

This contribution is the result of experimenting with methodologies linked to the understanding of soundscapes in the context of medieval monasteries. In our specific area, the approach was not focused on the cognitive concept itself so much as the perception of the spirituality of the ringing of bells. The premise was to understand whether, and how, the bells functioned as a soundmark for controlling the territory. The case studies examined are the Abbey of Farneta, the Monastery of Camaldoli and the Abbey of San Fedele, today located in the Province of Arezzo: the three religious structures differ in their historical development, geographical position, and economy. However, what links them (and what links the great majority of medieval monastic complexes) is a tight control of their territory for production purposes, in order to guarantee the profitability of their material heritage. Analyses of the diffusion of the sound of the bells was compared (and integrated) with visibility and catchment analyses. The aim was to understand whether this type of analytical approach could contribute to the definition of a monastery’s ‘catchment area’. The data that emerged describe a complex economic landscape in which identified anomalies at settlement level can be worth analyzing and trying to understand.

[EN] Plant communities are complex and dynamic elements of the landscape, intertwined with both natural factors and human activities. Vegetation series reflect the environmental characteristics of the landscape, but also the anthropic impact, one of the exogenous forces that most profoundly affects the landscape formation process. This paper aims to investigate the interactions between long-term human settlement catchment areas and vegetation series. The case study area of the Sicani Mountains (Central-Western Sicily) proved to be an ideal place to perform GIS-based spatial analysis in order to compare a data set of rural archaeological sites and land units created through the mapping of vegetation series. The existence of a causal link between vegetation series and human settlement patterns allows us, as well as future researchers, to find new explanations for the formation of the multifaceted Mediterranean rural landscape., We would like to express our gratitude to Steve Luczo, owner of Bona Furtuna LLC, who entirely supported and funded the project ‘Harvesting Memories: Ecology and Archaeology of Monti Sicani landscapes (Central-Western Sicily)’.

Il volume raccoglie un quadro di sintesi sull’archeologia delle varie tipologie di trasformazione, riuso e rioccupazione delle ville romane in Italia fra Tarda Antichità e Alto Medioevo. Il fenomeno della fine delle ville viene affrontato attraverso l’esposizione dei differenti paradigmi interpretativi elaborati nel dibattito europeo ed italiano, con un approfondimento sui principali contesti archeologici di Gallia e Hispania. Alla luce dell’estensivo censimento di una consistente massa critica di dati pubblicati e di un approccio statistico, si presenta una casistica aggiornata per tutto il territorio nazionale (regiones dell’Italia peninsulare, Sardegna e Sicilia) delle evidenze archeologiche relative alle dinamiche diacroniche delle ville romane tra il III e l’VIII secolo.

[EN] From the 4th century, the so-called “late antique agrarian system” characterized Sicily in an exemplary way that is readable in material evidence of the wealth of senatorial elite and its luxury villas but also in the development of large secondary agglomerations / villages along the main roads.This "golden age" of the possessores began to suffer profound changes already from the 5th century, a significant moment in which many villas ruined and started to be reused and reoccupied indifferent ways., Financiación: beca "Juan de la Cierva-incorporación, IJCI-2017-31494

This number will be entirely in open access. Please visit the web site www.postclassical.it, [EN]The city of Palermo and its surrounding valley is an important historic irrigated landscape,characterized by underground hydraulic structures and by a long tradition of irrigation systems inherited from the Islamic presence in Sicily throughout the Middle Ages (9th-11thcentury). The Islamic “green revolution” radically innovated the irrigation systems of Sicily and thus also lead to the introduction and diffusion of new irrigated crops. In Palermo’s suburban areas, 63 hydraulic infrastructure and drainage tunnel sites have been surveyed andclassified into 4 hydraulic categories: 1) qanāts; 2) blind qanāts; 3) connected wells; 4)emerging drainage galleries. These structures, notwithstanding some doubts concerningtheir exact dating, seem to be typical of the Medieval period. The Norman Favara /Maredolce castle and park (12thcentury) is a particularly interesting case study in evaluating the role of Islamic heritage in Palermo valley water management and is an extraordi-nary example of how Islamic hydraulic engineering was used to demonstrate royal power., [IT] La città di Palermo e la sua valle circostante sono un importante paesaggio storico irriguo,caratterizzato da strutture idrauliche sotterranee e da una lunga tradizione di sistemi diirrigazione ereditati dalla presenza islamica in Sicilia nel medioevo (IX-XI secolo). La “rivoluzione verde” islamica ha radicalmente innovato i sistemi di irrigazione siciliani e questoportò all’introduzione e alla diffusione di nuove specie coltivate. Nell’area suburbana di Pa-lermo sono stati indagati 63 infrastrutture idrauliche e tunnel di scolo, classificati in 4 ca-tegorie: 1) qanāts; 2) qanāts ciechi; 3) pozzi collegati; 4) gallerie di scolo emergenti. Que-ste strutture, nonostante alcuni dubbi circa la loro esatta datazione, sembra siano tipicidel periodo medievale. Il castello normanno di Favara / Maredolce e il suo parco (XII secolo)è un interessante caso studio per valutare il ruolo del patrimonio islamico nella gestionedell’acqua nella valle palermitana ed è uno straordinario esempio di come l’ingegneria idrau-lica islamica fosse usata per dimostrare il potere reale.

[EN] In Spring 2018, a second archaeological campaign (supported and funded by Bona Furtuna LLC) was carried out in the rural site of Contrada Castro (Corleone, Palermo). The main aim was to investigate a building just partially excavated in 2017. The results of this excavation confirmed the sequence, which starts from the late archaic/classical period and then continues with a new settlement from the Byzantine to the Islamic period. Over the collapse layers of some stone structures, not entirely investigated, of the late 6th-5th c. BC a probable area for perinatal burials was created during the 7th-early/mid-8th c. AD. This marginal cemetery area was replaced by a rectangular building for craft activities for pottery production. In fact, in the first phase of this building two pottery kilns were associated with large amounts of productive wastes. The production activities were relatively brief, and one of the kilns was probably reused as an oven. Radiocarbon dating confirmed the use of this building from the late 8th c. AD to the 9th c. AD when it was apparently abandoned: there are no signs of fire or violent destruction. During the 10th c. AD this building was no longer visible and new wall was built with a completely different orientation. The Islamic occupation, covering the entire 10th and 11th c. AD, was heavily damaged by post-abandonment activities of spoliation of stone and agro-pastoral practices that occurred during the last century., Bona Furtuna LLC

The Byzantine Countryside: Insular and Coastal Perspectives, Byzantine Seminar Series: Byzantium At Ankara, Fall 2019/20, Workshop, Bilkent University / Camphi Block 06-12-2019, Bilkent Ankara, Turkey, Following the crisis of the 'golden age' of the Roman villas in the 4 th century and the complex events of the 5 th century, between Vandals and Ostrogoths roles, the definition of settlement patterns in Western Sicily from the 30s of the 6 th century (Belisarius 're- conquest') to the Norman conquest (late 11 th century) is a crucial point to understand the formation of post-roman landscapes in the Island. Paradigms of continuity and discontinuity are still strong and is not easy (but it is really possible) to define when 'Late Roman / Late Antique' patterns finished and 'Byzantine' and then 'Islamic' ones started. The main issue revolves around the tendency, or the will, of reading rural dynamics ¿ what about longue durée? ¿ in strict connection to major socio-political events or all-encompassing narratives about the drastic transformation of post-Roman Mediterranean. Following the vision of the (almost) 'two Sicily' ¿ approximately at the West and the East of the Platani river ¿ this paper aims to summarize and debate the settlement dynamics in the countryside of Western Sicily between 6 th and 11 th century according to archaeological data from survey and excavations. In particular, the ongoing research at Contrada Castro (Corleone, Palermo) in the Monti Sicani area provides new insights on inland settlements¿ practices during the Early Middle Ages. The site, otherwise unknown from the written sources, has revealed an interesting sequence related to the re-occupation of a 6 th -5 th century BC building complex during the Early Middle Ages. At the current state of the research ¿ the most telling evidence for a new occupation of the site between the 7 th -early 8 th century is connected with the burial of two peri-natal individuals. From the second half of the 8 th -9 th century new buildings testify for a further development of this settlement. Lastly, between the 10 th -11 th century the complex undergoes a drastic reshaping following its demise, as the thick layer of building debris shows. In this phase, the entire settlement¿s topography changes significantly and all the rebuilt structures feature a new orientation. The archaeological evidence yielded so far illustrates well the informative potential of the site in order to understand and reconstruct the economic trends and human- environment interactions of an early medieval community in the countryside of Western Sicily., Financiación: beca "Juan de la Cierva-incorporación, IJCI-2017-31494

Poster at 40th Association for Environmental Archaeology Conference, 30/11-01/12/2019, University of Sheffield (UK), Within the project "Harvesting memories: ecology and archaeology of Monti Sicani landscapes" this paper aims to reconstruct human-environment relationship in the inland of Central-Western Sicily during the Early Middle Ages through a comparative analysis between archaeological data and vegetation dynamics in current landscape. The environmental archaeological record (faunal remains and anthracological/ carpological finds) has been analysed from different layers of the rural settlement (Contrada Castro, Corleone, Palermo) -excavated in 2017, 2018 and 2019- mainly occupied during Byzantine age and Islamic period (8th-11th c. AD). The first examination of charcoals provided the identification of the plant species selected and exploited in the surrounding landscape of the site for each chronological phase. The archaeobotanical data indicates punctual and qualitative picture on the historical vegetation of this area. The phytosociological data allowed the spatial arrangements of archaeobotanical finds within plant communities and its ecological distribution. The archaeozoological data added more information on the reconstruction of rural economy, husbandry management and its ecological environment. An integrated comparison between the structure and composition of current phytocoenoses with archaeobotanical and archaeozoological data allowed to interpret the dynamics of interaction between a rural community and its environment., Financiación: beca "Juan de la Cierva-incorporación, IJCI-2017-31494, MINECO), IJCI-2017-31494" y proyecto "Harvesting Memories" de la Universidad de Palermo (financiado por Bona Furtuna LLC).

From 2017 to 2019 a new rural settlement has been investigated in Contrada Castro (Corleone, Palermo) within the wider framework of the project ¿Harvesting Memories, Ecology and Archaeology of Monti Sicani landscapes¿ (Central-Western Sicily). Following a first occupation dated to the 6th-5th c. BC, the site was re-occupied between the Byzantine and Islamic period (7th-11th c. AD). Under the 10th-11th c. AD structures, a large square buildinghas been uncovered, that shows two subsequent phases dated from the mid-8th c. AD to the 9th c. AD. The structures belonging to the first phase of the building have revealed traces of pottery production, as indicated by the recovery of a two-chambered kiln as well as the presence of several ceramic wastes. This paper presents the material evidence connected to this recently unearthed building and discusses its implication in terms of craft production in a rural area during the transition from the Byzantine to the early Islamic period. This analysis enables us to reassess the existing chrono-typology for specific ceramic vessels, such as painted amphorae- in particular the ones showing band and sinusoidal decoration-and cooking wares recovered from this building. Moreover, the possibility to study specific pottery types in association with both a sound stratigraphic sequence ¿the kiln lies under the 10th-11th c. AD structuresand new radiocarbon data acquired from several key contexts, provides important insights into the material culture of a rural community living in the inland of Sicily between the 8th and 9th c. AD. In addition, we will also introduce the preliminary outcomes of the geological prospection carried out to identify the raw materials suitable for potting within the area, combined with the petrographic analysis of modern clay samples. Such integrated approach enables us to gain a better understanding on ceramic craft-technology, clay procurement strategies and more broadly the consumption of household pottery in the countryside of western Sicily between the late Byzantine period and the early Islamic age, adding to our knowledge of a crucial as well as ¿dark¿ period in the history of Early Medieval Sicily.

In the last ten years, as part of the protection activities carried out by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, several interventions have contributed to the knowledge of the medieval phase of the city of Palermo; here we will focus in particular on some early medieval contexts brought to light in the heart of the ancient city that document in particular the material culture in the eighth century, still little known. In the first case, the most important, it is an excavation conducted in 2017 at the restoration site of the ancient Palazzo Galletti in Santamarina, built in the Middle Ages near the northern slope of the Punic fortification, where it was highlighted a large drainage ditch dug in the seat of one of the main roads eastwest of the Punic-Roman city, at a time when the road, used continuously since the fourth century BC, was no longer in use. The ceramic materials (including amphorae, cooking pots, oil lamps, a fragment of ¿pietra ollare¿), found together with a bronze Byzantine coin, allow us to date the construction of the pit during the eighth century and return an interesting association of findings in a closed context, of which there will be an essential repertoire. These findings will be compared with the materials found in two other urban contexts excavated in 2011, which also document a chronological horizon related to the eighth century or slightly wider, the first emerged in the site of the Palazzetto Artale near Piazza Settangeli, in the western part of the ancient city, the second in Piazza Bologni, where during the construction of the new sewerage system was intercepted a discharge of materials of the Byzantine era.

The project ¿Harvesting Memories: Ecology and Archaeology of Monti Sicani landscapes¿ aims to analyse the long-term relationship of landscape dynamics and settlement patterns in a Mediterranean inland of Central-Western Sicily. The project combined different interdisciplinary approaches of vegetation science, landscape ecology, history and archaeology in order to diachronically understand and reconstruct the human- society-environment interactions. From 2017 to 2019 a new rural settlement has been investigated in Contrada Castro (Corleone, Palermo). The excavation in Contrada Castro showed a clear case of long-term occupation of an hill-top site during Late Archaic/Classical age (6 th -5 th c. BC) and the Byzantine and Islamic period (7 th -11 th c. AD). Soils from the archaeological excavation were sampled to obtain evidences about paleo-vegetation and vegetal paleo-diet. Archaeobotanical data (seeds and charcoal remains) represent an informative source in human-environmental dynamics to collect specific data on a small scale in terms of chronology and topography (Hastorf, Popper 1988; Pearsall 2009). Furthermore, presence of edible plants as cereals, pulses and fruit characterize their use as economical resources. Unfortunately, archaeobotanical analyses from archaeological sites in Sicily are still not very common (see http://brainplants.successoterra.net/sites.html). For the reconstruction of the paleo-environment and the use of arboreal resources from the three chronological phases of the site, a total of 239 liters of soils were analysed. Taxonomical identification was made by optical microscopy through the comparison with the reference collection and specific atlases (fig.). More than 400 wood charcoals were observed, about 80% of them was identified. Thanks to comparisons with the current vegetation, so far 8 species have been identified - Quercus cfr. ilex (fig.), Pistacia cfr. terebinthus, Rhamnus alathernus, Fraxinus ornus, Ulmus canescens, Acer cfr. campestris, Ostrya carpinifolia, Populus cf. nigra; identification reached the detail of genus or subfamily in 6 cases - Quercus cf. robur / pubescens, Phillyrea sp., Sorbus sp., Rosacea cfr. Pirus sp. and maybe Moracea. The arboreal vegetation is therefore represented by evergreen oaks, semi- and deciduous oaks, maples, ash trees, associated with riparian species such as elm, poplar and hornbeam, and shrub species such as backthorn, terebinth, sorb, plum. Cultivated species are mostly not represented. Despite the widespread presence of the evergreen oaks in the whole record, differences between the three chronological phases were identified, highlighting a selective use of the wild species present in the area and a specific collection of wood for the hearths. 1) Hastorf C.A., Popper V.F.1988, Current Paleoethnobotany. Analytical Methods and Cultural Interpretations of Archaeological Plant Remains, Chicago. ISBN: 978022631893 2) Pearsall D. M. 2009, Paleoethnobotany: A Handbook of Procedures, Second Edition, Walnut Creek. ISBN-10: 1598744720 3) BRAIN Network, http://brainplants.successoterra.net/sites.html, Financiación: beca "Juan de la Cierva-incorporación, IJCI-2017-31494, MINECO), IJCI-2017-31494" y proyecto "Harvesting Memories" de la Universidad de Palermo (financiado por Bona Furtuna LLC).

Comunicación presentada en el "Symposium Landscape Trajectories during the Long Anthropocene: Dialogues between Ecology and Archaeology" (10th "International Association for Landscape Ecology World Congress", Milan, July, 1-5, 2019)